Nairobi Matatu Conductor Earns Praise after Returning Lost Sh30,000 to a Commuter

A matatu conductor’s rare act of returning lost cash to its owner has earned him praise from Kenyans, proving that there are good touts contrary to what many believe.

Daniel Mwaura, who operates on the Gachie – Nairobi CBD route, returned Sh30,000 to a commuter who boarded his vehicle on Friday morning.

Nairobi News reported that the father of one, who is expecting his second-born, had just dropped off commuters in town on Friday morning when he spotted a wallet left on one of the seats by a passenger. Inside it was Sh30, 000.

“My first reaction was that the owner must have been devastated and so I informed my employer and deposited the wallet with only Sh300 at the office, telling them to notify me if anyone comes to claim it,” Mwaura told Nairobi News.

The next day, he was phoned from the office and was informed that the owner had come to collect his items.

“I told Stanley (the owner of the wallet) to cross over to our fire station stage (on Tom Mboya Street) where I had just arrived. When we met I could see he was the same person whose photo was on the ID.”

“I asked him what else was in his wallet and when he gave me the exact amount as Sh30, 000, I surrendered the money that I had been carrying around just in case the owner claims it,” Mwaura narrated.

Mwaura said that Stanley revealed to him that the cash was to foot medical bill for his sick child. “He asked me what he could give me in return but I told him to first deal with his sick child and we shall meet later,” Mwaura told Nairobi News.

He disclosed that he was brought up by a single mother, who put food on the table by selling porridge at Machakos country bus station. His mother, he says, shaped his life towards honesty.

“I believe that one should do to others what he expects them to do to him and even if I had pocketed that money, Sh30,000 could not have ended all my problems.”

“Even if the amount could have been more, I would still have surrendered it because I believe in earning clean money,” he said.

He says he dropped out of Kenya Polytechnic in 2011 while taking a course in Information Technology (IT) and decided to go for casual jobs in the construction sector, before moving to the matatu industry in 2013.

Ganaki Sacco, which has employed him, hailed Mwaura’s honesty and expressed confidence in all their crew.